Uh oh: Witness found to Cain incidents?

posted at 1:25 pm on November 2, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

So far, neither of the two alleged complainants from Herman Cain’s tenure at the National Restaurant Association have come forward publicly, although it appears at least one would like NRA to release her from her confidentiality agreement to do so. However, a pollster who worked for NRA at the time told KTOK in Oklahoma that he witnessed both incidents — and that if the women talk, Cain’s candidacy would be over:

Interviewed today on KTOK’s Mullins in the Morning, [Chris] Wilson, of Wilson-Perkins-Allen Opinion Research headquartered in Washington, D.C. explained he was a witness to the incident. “I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up.”

Wilson described the woman as a low level staffer who was maybe two years out of college. “This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it,” he continued. “It was only a matter of time because so many people were aware of what took place, so many people were aware of her situation, the fact she left—everybody knew with the campaign that this would eventually come up.”

Wilson claims that he also can’t discuss the specifics, for legal reasons. I’m not quite clear as to what that might be. He may have signed a broad non-disclosure agreement with NRA to get the polling work, but if that’s the case, he just violated it with this statement today. Unless he also participated in the settlement/severance agreements with the women, he’s as free to discuss the details as the fact that he witnessed them. And it’s difficult to see how Wilson would have been involved in a settlement between NRA and the two employees.

However, Wilson isn’t only linked to NRA and Cain from years gone by. His firm has conducted polling in this presidential race for the Make Us Great Again PAC. And guess which candidate is favored by MUGA-PAC? Why, none other than … Rick Perry. The PAC has no formal connection to Perry’s campaign, but it’s certainly boosting Perry as the Republican nominee in the primary.

Could Wilson be more than just a witness in this story? Could he be a source? It could just be a coincidence that a witness to these alleged incidents did work for an organization pushing Perry, and that the story mysteriously got to Politico as Cain took support away from Perry in mid-October. If he is the source, then conducting an interview on the topic has to be one of the dumber political moves I’ve seen.

Update: Some are saying that this indicates Romney as the source of the leak, but I’m not terribly convinced that a one-time donation means much. Romney has less to fear with Cain as his main opponent than others in the race, and besides, no one knows whether Anderson ever knew about the incidents at all. Other board members say they didn’t. YMMV, however.

Update II: There have been plenty of developments that we have covered in other posts, but this development should be noted here:

Wilson emails THE WEEKLY STANDRD: “To be clear, and you can ask any of the reporters covering this story, I had nothing to do with leaking this in any way, and I’ve never discussed or shared this story with any of my clients – period.”

I’m pretty sure Politico won’t confirm or deny on any speculation on sources, but Wilson’s denial should be noted on this post. However, John McCormack notes that Wilson has another indirect connection to the Perry campaign:

But pollster Tony Fabrizio, who was Wilson’s boss at Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates at the time of the alleged incidents, was hired by the Perry campaign in October.

Although Wilson claims that “anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time knew that this [incident with Cain] was gonna come up,” Fabrizio says he didn’t now that Cain was accused of sexual harassment.

“Our firm worked for the NRA prior to Herman Cain’s ascendancy there, during his presidency, and even for a little bit after that,” Fabrizio tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD. “But I was never witness to any of what Chris is saying, or at least what I’ve read as the account of what he’s saying.”

But did Wilson ever tell his boss about any of these incidents or allegations? “No, not that I recall, no,” says Fabrizio.

Blowback

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“I was the pollster at the National Restaurant Association when Herman Cain was head of it and I was around a couple of times when this happened and anyone who was involved with the NRA at the time, knew that this was gonna come up.”

However, a pollster who worked for NRA at the time told KTOK in Oklahoma that he witnessed both incidents

I understand that a lobby group would have a pollster on-staff, but is he really going to all the Christmas parties and such? Or maybe he just hung around Herman Cain all day?

This doesn’t pass the giggle test. The only people who have relevant information about the incidents are Cain, who says he’s innocent, the women, who say he’s guilty, and the restaurant association’s independent investigators, who don’t seem to have rendered judgment on the merits of the accusations.

Wilson served as Executive Director of the Republican Party of Texas when President George W. Bush was governor, working directly for Karl Rove, and following Karen Hughes when she left the Party to join the campaign.

I smell BS. This is the exact same MO as the Rubio hit piece. Rubio is just a much better politician and Cain has so far blundered the response to this story.

We will see, but a guy that talks about the story but won’t give any details other than “oh it’s gonna take out his campaign if I told you”, then claims that he can’t tell details because of “legal reasons” isn’t credible to me.

Could he be a source? It could just be a coincidence that a witness to these alleged incidents did work for an organization pushing Perry, and that the story mysteriously got to Politico as Cain took support away from Perry in mid-October. If he is the source, then conducting an interview on the topic has to be one of the dumber political moves I’ve seen.

Not only that, but Cain and I had an inappropriate relationship.
-Will Folks.

Seriously though, his campaign and he blew this badly. If there’s nothing to it, then a simple, clear “I can’t go into details, but I was falsely accused of sexual harrasment and under my lawyer’s advice my company settled. BTW, how’s that whole Fast and Furious investigation coming along NBC/CBS/ABCetera, etc.”

If he DID commit sexual harrassment, better he came out at first and said something like, “yes, my behavior was inexcusable, but that was 12 years ago, I’ve learned my lesson and have obviously not had a single incidence since, and I just want to do my part to help fix Americacetera etc.”

I don’t get this! If someone accused me of something I did not do, I would be BEGGING them to come out and show the evidence. Mr Cain acts as if all is well, but now we have “sources” saying they could end his campaign! Dare them! Mr Cain should say “Bring it ON!” Force their hand! Why is this so complicated? Someone make me smart!

My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.

Keep dreaming, hes not that stupid. The story is baseless, the only connection is he contributed to Romney, the end. For the record I dont think Perry did it either, but the tie between this Wilson guy is much closer then a contributor.

You know as well as I do that Cain has become HA’s new Palin. People are looking for a conservative savior.
Cain’s another good conservative who doesn’t belong in the WH.
Before people scream Perry cultist @ me-I’ve said repeatedly that I think Perry is a poor candidate-who’s the best of a week field.

Rush has just read portions of the Political article WHICH HAD BEEN DELETED, re: the woman’s lawyer.
I’m sure the transcript will be available on his website.
Paraphrasing, it reports that the woman’s lawyer has no records of the suit, nor of the agreement, and hadn’t even known the name of the accused.

Update: Some are saying that this indicates Romney as the source of the leak, but I’m not terribly convinced that a one-time donation means much. Romney has less to fear with Cain as his main opponent than others in the race, and besides, no one knows whether Anderson ever knew about the incidents at all. Other board members say they didn’t. YMMV, however.

Except that some Washington Post analysis shows that if Cain is out, Mitt finally breaks 30%. If Perry can’t recover and Cain is out, Romney has nothing to fear Ed.

The shoe would certainly fit. Cain insists on wearing that stupid pimp daddy, Al Capone style hat everywhere. Don’t be blaming the other candidates. If the information is there, let it come out. There seems to be an awful lot of effort to keep the information under wraps, so what are they afraid of. Oh yeah! It’s probably true. Now if we couple that with the fact that Cain thinks China is a military threat, that’ll make for a well-rounded President, don’t you think?

“This occurred at a restaurant in Crystal City (Virginia) and everybody was aware of it,”

This is very hard to believe. Politico comes up with a hit piece protecting the “victims” anonymity, with quotes from board members saying they never heard, suspected or imagined Cain as doing anything like this, yet “everybody was aware of it”. Really?
This clown Wilson worked as Director of the Texas Republican Party under Karl Rove while Dubya was governor. Hmmmmmmm… maybe this was all to hurt Cain AND Perry?

You’re clearly doing everything you can to defend Herbie. Who gives a shyte who the leaker is? It’s been widely whispered for a long time that these charges were out there. The media just had to do their jobs and do some digging.

The fact is, Cain clearly was involved in improper behavior and he is digging himself into a deeper hole with his denials and ever-changing stories.

Here is not an “honest, upstanding man”. He’s a slimeball politician, like so many others.

Please man – this guy isn’t the end of the story. More’s coming out on a daily basis I just hope the Cainlusionals keep condemning everyone that validates this. At some point – the avalanche knocks them off the mountain and they tumble to the bottom to confront their foolishness.

Actually settlements are given out for nothing every day. It’s less expensive to pay nuisance value than to fight for years and hope the trier of fact believes him instead of her. Not saying he is telling the truth, only that the downside risk is big enough that these cases routinely settle even when the underlying allegations are bogus.

If this info was given to Politico over a month ago, Perry would have just gotten in and would have been booming in the polls. Cain wouldn’t have been a threat yet to Perry and his oppo research would have just gotten underway. Why isn’t it more likely that Romney, who has been running for half a decade now, wouldn’t be the source of this?

Wilson claims that he also can’t discuss the specifics, for legal reasons.

Wilson’s legal restraints to talking about the specifics of the Cain sexual harrassment might have nothing to do with nondisclosure issues related to the Cain harrassment settlements and everything to do with the wishes of his current employers. The reputation of a given polling firm depends on its perceived objectivity and professionalism. Involvement in a high-profile deal like this could cause irreparable damage.

By speaking out at all, Wilson fingered Perry as the triggerman because of Wilson’s firm’s tangential relationship to the Perry campaign. I personally think that’s intentional misdirection, and if so, one subtle piece of work. Whoever engineered this has managed to simultaneously damage two top-tier GOP primary candidates with one operation. Whoever did it deserves the Machiavelli Prize for Social Engineering.

Meanwhile, Rush was reading from yesterday’s Washington Post (now edited out) that the accusers lawyer, Joel Bennett, doesn’t have the case file anymore, and didn’t remember 1) the executive’s name (that would be Cain) and 2) attending any actual meeting for settlement. Apparently it wasn’t significant enough to warrant an actual meeting.

Meanwhile 2, you gotta like how Ed dismissed the potential Romney supporter connection, which I think is very appreciable, and is so quick to pin something on Perry.

Meanwhile 3, the gang at NRO is doing a dung dump on Cain and it turns out that Jonatahn Martin at Politico is actually an ex-National Review guy.

Because he isnt a political neophyte and he doesnt panic. This is a panic move by someone and Im telling you that Romney camp is confident bordering on cocky. There is a reason they only do paid ads against Perry, they arent afraid of Cain..at all. Sorry.

Yet you have no problem taking him at his word that he “witnessed” the two incidents himself. Yuh-huh.

KingGold on November 2, 2011 at 1:42 PM

The fact that one of the incidents, whatever it consisted of, is now in the public eye, couled with the fact that this guy has a very plausible reason for being at an event associated witht his trade group… yeah, I’m willing to believe that he did, in fact, witness this incident.

Now, as to whether his charaterization of it is believable… well, I guess I just havd to wait for those directly involved to talk.

Which is going to happen KG… and I really think that you know that.

WHich of course, leads to a question: Let us assume that Chris Wilson is a rational actor. He is in GOP political business. He knows, being rational, that ther is at least a chance currently-leading-in-the-polls candidate Cain might in fact be this party’s nominee, or even POTUS.

Is this rational actor really going to take a chance falsely attacking this candidate? My evaluation of the siuation says no.